Philippines Signs Peace Pact a Long Time in the Making

Filipino Muslims show wave flaglets after hearing the comprehensive peace agreement on the Bangsamoro region was signed in Manila on Mar. 27.

European Pressphoto Agency

MANILA–The Philippine government and the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, signed a peace deal Thursday nearly 17 years in the making. The agreement with the group, which claims up to 11,000 fighters, sets in motion a process that could finally forge lasting peace and deliver development to the long-impoverished southern island of Mindanao.

Now that the deal has been signed, the government will have to draft a bill that will be submitted to Congress in order to set up a new regional government called the Bangsamoro. Once that bill passes, it will go to President Benigno Aquino III for approval. The bill will then be submitted to the area it’s set to govern for a plebiscite. When the process is complete, an election will be held to select the officials who will govern the Bangsamoro.

Philippine president Benigno Aquino III (second right) and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (center) witness the signing of a final peace agreement between the Philippine government and its largest Muslim rebel group in Manila on Mar. 27.

European Pressphoto Agency

Here’s a timeline of how the process has evolved up to this point:

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July 1997: The government signs a deal with the MILF in which both sides agreed to end hostilities and start down the path to peace through a round of talks. The deal comes shortly after Manila signed a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front, an older group the MILF had split off from and eventually eclipsed.

October 1999: Peace talks begin, but an ultimatum from then-President Joseph Estrada to complete a peace deal by July 2000 eventually leads to renewed hostilities and the talks collapse.

2001: Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo takes office after Mr. Estrada is ousted in a popular uprising in January 2001. Within months, Ms. Arroyo’s government signs a new agreement with the MILF to begin another round of peace talks. Malaysia agrees to facilitate the negotiations.

July 2008: After years of intermittent negotiations and attacks and counter-attacks between government and rebel forces, the two sides return to the negotiating table and strike a deal to expand the area governed by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The ARMM is the name for the regional government that controls the predominantly Muslim areas in the southern Philippines that have opted to join it.

August 2008: The Philippine Supreme Court stops a proposal to expand the ARMM’s coverage area due to widespread opposition. In September, the government dissolves the peace panel and scuttles the agreement to expanded ARMM’s coverage to include other areas in Mindanao and some parts of Palawan province.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels stand in formation inside their camp, as thousands of its members and residents rally in support of the peace agreement with the government on the southern island of Mindanao on Mar. 27.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

June 2010: President Benigno Aquino III creates a new peace panel just days after taking office. By August, Malaysia once again agrees to facilitate the talks.

April 2011: Exploratory talks begin.

August 2011: Mr. Aquino and Murad Ebrahim, chairman of the MILF, meet in Tokyo and agree to speed up the negotiations.

December 2011: Official negotiations begin.

April 2012: Peace negotiators agree to create a new regional government that will replace the ARMM.

October 2012: Mr. Aquino witnesses the signing of the framework agreement that has been reached with the MILF for the creation of the Bangsamoro, the new Muslim Homeland that will enlarge and replace the ARMM.

December 2012: Mr. Aquino appoints Miriam Coronel-Ferrer as new head of the government panel in charge of negotiating the peace agreement. He also signs an order creating the transitional commission that will draft the basic law for the Bangsamoro.

January 2013: Negotiators from both sides agree to create a third-party monitoring team to oversee the peace process and the final annex on normalization is forged. This is the final chapter in the peace deal, marking a historic end to a decades-long conflict. The final chapter is the most contentious since it deals with the decommissioning of rebel forces, creation of a local police force, removal of government soldiers with the Bangsamoro territory, disbanding of private armies and intensification of development efforts. The wealth and power sharing annexes were signed in late 2012.

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